The morning test session of the second and final day of NASCAR Preseason Thunder Las Vegas at Las Vegas Motor Speedway has concluded. Of note, A.J. Allmendinger crashed for the second time in as many days (he was not injured) and this morning's best run - turned in by Paul Menard at 188.370 mph - was nearly four miles per hour faster than yesterday's best lap of 184.685 mph by Kasey Kahne. In fact, 13 drivers posted speeds higher than yesterday's fastest. (The pole-winning speed for last year's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 was 172.403 mph, set by Greg Biffle.)

Yesterday, at least two prominent drivers - one a former champion and the other a past winner here - complained the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series cars might be going too fast on the new 20-degree banked turns. Others did not seem to think the higher speeds were a problem. No matter whose side you take, all will agree on one thing: it's fast out there.

"I like it a lot," said Toyota team owner and driver Michael Waltrip. "It's really fast, obviously, but I don't know what you think (we're) gonna do about that and I don't know why people complain about it. We're race car drivers, for gosh sakes. The cars just go fast - it's not the track's fault. The cars would be easier to slow down than build a track that isn't fun for the fans to watch."

"Everything's good," said 1999 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series champion Dale Jarrett. "There are a few bumps here and there, but that's just what you learn about the race track. It is extremely fast and we've already got multiple grooves out there and that's a really good thing. It should be beneficial to good racing when we come back (in March for NASCAR Weekend)."

"The thing I like the most about it the fact that here we are at our first test prior to the first time racing on it and I've already been able to run up high right off the bottom," Waltrip added. "Every track that they built in the 1990s or around 2000, they got a bad rap for not-so-good racing and all being alike. Well, this track's a lot like those tracks, with the exception of the banking. It's such that, right off the bat, we're able to run in two or three different lines and that'll make for good racing."

Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Juan Pablo Montoya added an international flavor to the lunchtime press conference, fielding and answering some questions from the media in Spanish. The seven-time Formula 1 winner and native of Bogota, Columbia, spoke about his transition from F1 to NASCAR.

"For me, (driving) a stock car is harder than an open-wheel car," said Montoya. "But for a stock car guy, an open-wheel car is probably harder. Everything happens faster and it's a completely different car.

"Here, it's hard. It's a hard race track. It's all about confidence. For me, being so new to this, the mile-and-a-half tracks are probably the hardest ones. You go in (to the corner), you get out of the gas, you get back on it. As soon as you get comfortable, you just start attacking (the track) and attacking and attacking. Then you start getting a little bit faster. It's a pretty fast race track. I'm amazed how fast it is. I'm not even touching the brakes, all the way around."

For Las Vegan Kyle Busch, the new track was not a surprise - he tested tires for Goodyear here last month. "It's been going pretty well. We've strictly been working on race-trim runs and for some reason, a lot of guys are bustin' off some really quick lap times. We're not finding the speed out of our car, but we're finding the longevity. To me, it feels pretty good out there. The race track is real nice. A lot of guys said it might be a little too fast, and we could be - Atlanta was fast when it was redone. We're so maxed out on our cars and the way everything's set up that we go so fast around any race track. It's just all about what kind of tire Goodyear brings. They brought the hardest one to try to slow us down and we're still out there running 29-teens."

Tickets for LVMS' March 9-11 NASCAR Weekend featuring the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 and NASCAR Busch Series Sam's Town 300 may be purchased by calling the LVMS ticket office at (702) 644-4444 or online at www.LVMS.com.